Charles Sellier and Sunn Classic Pictures
By Chris Cooling
1974’s The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams introduced America’s original mountain man to film audiences and was an early effort of producer Charles E. Sellier Jr., having just joined Utah’s Sunn Classic Pictures. However, Sellier’s story begins well prior to his stint with Sunn Classic. Charles Sellier was born a Roman Catholic in 1943 and grew up in Denver, Colorado. Showing an interest and aptitude in photography, his first job was as a dark room technician. In the wake of his parent’s divorce at the young age of 12, he had also converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. Dropping out of school in 10th grade, he married his high school sweetheart when they were both 15 years old. Sellier became a technician and salesman for a film supply company in Denver, and by 21 was earning an incredible $65,000 salary (the equivalent of over $500,000 today.) In later years, he claimed to have become fascinated with the new world of information processing being made possible by computer technology during this time. [1]
At 26 he formed his own company, Creative Visual
Dynamics, making industrial films, TV commercials, and travelogues. Two years
later, CVD constructed a production facility in a Denver suburb that enabled
them to do in-house commercial film editing and processing at one-fifth the average
national cost. [2] Sellier eventually tried his hand at making a
theatrical motion picture using funds from private investors. The
Brothers O’Toole, a comedy western starring John Astin and Lee
Meriwether, began filming near Canon City, Colorado in October 1972. [3]
John Astin had kind words for CVD: “I really can’t say enough kind things about these people and their film. Somehow, I feel that CVD is going to revolutionize the movie industry and I’m happy to have been a little part of it.” [4] With positive press and a theatrical film on the way, Sellier was able to swing a $6 million 12 picture deal with a New York investment firm. The films would be G-rated, feature length, shot on location in Colorado, and would be produced over the next two years. [5]
In April 1973, during post-production of Brothers
O’Toole, Sellier's CVD company was acquired by
Salt Lake City studio American National Enterprises. [6] Not to be confused with American
International Pictures, known for teenage exploitation films and sci-fi monster
movies in the 1950s and 1960s, ANE
were primarily known for such films as Alaskan Safari and Cougar
Country, nature documentaries told in a narrative style, marketed under the
banner Rainbow Adventure Films. ANE
was also known for a particular non-traditional theatrical distribution
practice we’ll examine shortly.
Prior to Sellier coming onboard, ANE had also dipped its toe into
pseudo-documentaries such as Bigfoot: Man or Beast?, which notably
introduced the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film to audiences; and Encounter
with the Unknown, narrated by Rod Serling. After merging with ANE, Sellier signed a second production deal,
this time with Vidtronics for a 12-picture combination theatrical and
television syndication package. These films would continue ANE’s exploration of the paranormal, with
each film named after a sign of the Zodiac and focusing on a different
paranormal topic. [7]
Meanwhile, The Brothers O’Toole opened in May
in Colorado, and also played in Utah, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and a cluster
of New England states during its initial run. Characterized in puff pieces at
the time as a hit film, I can find no box office information on it at all, and
years later, Sellier expressed disappointment at its performance, as he told
researcher Gary Edgerton in 1982:
“What I discovered is that there is a lot
more to making a theatrical picture than a script, a location and some actors.
I just discovered that there is a lot more to the movie business than met the
eye.... Obviously, my first picture was a failure, a very painful failure to me
because it cost a lot of money, and I raised a lot of money on it...I was
interested in not having it happen again, it was such a negative experience for
me ... so I began to analyze the elements of what is a film, and what are you
trying to achieve, and so forth. Well, that became a very complex thing, it
took me many, many years...“ [8]
Sellier thus became quite interested in pre-release
audience testing and research, something Hollywood had done in one form or
another since the days of silent film, but he had plans to apply this type of
research before a film even began production. One benefit now available to
Sellier was ANE’s research and marketing department, which began to
adopt the use of computers for not only keeping daily
accounting records of production expenses, but also to tabulate the extensive
pre-production research he began implementing. By the beginning of 1974,
Sellier claimed of ANE: "We're the only ones in the
business to use computers. It tells us how much we can spend, who our potential
audience is, what time of year is best to release a movie and what to expect in
grosses from different theaters in an area.” [9]
Sellier was excited to apply his methods
of research to his next project, the docudrama Pieces of Eight,
to be filmed in Florida in the summer of 1974; [10] but he found himself snatched from ANE by rival Utah film studio Sunn Classic
Pictures. [i]
The history of Sunn Classic is also tied
to ANE. In 1971, Rayland Jensen, who had managed film distribution for ANE,
broke off and joined a competing studio. Mel Hardman Productions (MHP) had been
founded by Mel Hardman in 1965. Hardman had worked as the cinematographer for
ANE’s Cougar
Country. Together with
Hardman, Jensen formed Sun International, initially as a distribution company
subsidiary of Mel Hardman Productions.
One financier of MHP, Patrick Frawley, increased his stake in the company to the point of becoming majority shareholder, owning 80% of company stock. [11] Frawley, a staunch anti-communist Catholic and supporter of far right-wing causes, had used his profits from developing the Paper Mate ballpoint pen to purchase controlling interest in everything from the Schick razor company to Technicolor- the very company who had pioneered a proprietary three-color process of film development and provided this service to Hollywood studios.
Patrick Frawley’s acquisition of MHP was
part of his burgeoning media empire; he had founded the Twin Circle Publishing
Co. as a subsidiary of
Schick. Twin Circle published Faith & Family, a Catholic magazine that promoted marriage and motherhood, as well as
two Catholic newspapers, and distributed a 5-minute daily radio program and
weekly half-hour television show; all of these promoting traditionalist
Catholic views. He
also acquired the Classics Illustrated brand, known for its comic book adaptations of literary classics.
Frawley immediately began to insert his political and personal views into MHP
films in a ham-fisted manner, prompting the resignation of founder Mel Hardman.
[12]
With Hardman gone, Frawley changed the
studio’s name to Sunn Classic Pictures - initially spelled with one ‘N,’
and later with two - interestingly enough - to differentiate themselves from a
producer of pornography. [13] (They also did business as Schick Sunn
Classics.) Frawley’s
conservative
worldview would set the tone for the early productions of Sunn Classic; several
of which would depict a strong White male character surviving alone in the
North American wilderness against all odds.
Sunn was also known for
something else they borrowed from ANE, which was touched on earlier. Sunn practiced
‘four-walling,’ a
film distribution strategy where a studio would rent individual theaters,
usually in smaller town markets for a limited exhibition – typically a week at
most - and keep virtually all the revenue from ticket sales, while the theater
kept the concession revenue, the real profit center for movie theaters. In
traditional wide-release theatrical distribution, a movie booking agent would
be used to get a film exhibited and shipped to as many theaters in major
markets as possible, with the theater’s and agent’s percentages as well as film
print replication, shipping, and national marketing all eating into the
studio’s box office revenue. A four-walled film release would get by with far
fewer film prints that travelled regionally over many months, and the studio
would saturate each local market with advertising along the way. This was a
favored distribution method used by exploitation film promotor H. Kroger Babb
in the 1940s and 50s; and notably used by actor Tom Laughlin when he bought his film Billy Jack from Warner Brothers after a lackluster standard release and four-walled it to the tune of a $32 million gross. [14] Several of the former
employees of ANE, now at Sunn, were the very ones who helped develop ANE’s
four-walling strategies.
Four-walling enabled
small studios like ANE and Sunn to target the audience in areas they felt would
be most responsive to the types of films they offered – an audience demographic
that had largely stopped going to theaters.
The beginning of the 1970s had seen a slump in the movie business, and at least
some of that downturn had been a result of a portion of the moviegoing public
avoiding what they perceived as an
increase in profane, sexual,
violent, and occult content in mainstream Hollywood films. The
recent institution of the movie ratings system was also no guarantee that these
largely religious audiences wouldn’t still find objectionable material even
in
films given a mild rating. [ii]
In addition to their films being rated G, Sunn Classic’s reassuring motto was “wholesome family entertainment always” and their first effort set the archetype for the ‘wilderness’ genre of film they would first find success with: 1971’s Toklat. Starring and narrated by long-time character actor Leon Ames, he recounts the entertaining story of a grizzly bear cub growing up first in the wild, then after being rescued by a nameless aging mountain sheepherder firmly aware that man was the intruder of Toklat’s domain. Years later, when a grizzly preys on the sheep of the old man’s brother who is injured in the process, the old man is reluctantly charged with hunting down the 1,000-pound bear, which the narrative reveals to be none other than Toklat.
Toklat was filmed in Utah’s Uinta Mountains and the film’s title was taken from an Inuit word meaning “a valley formed by a glacier.” During the film’s promotion however, the producers said the title was derived from an Indigenous word meaning ‘ferocious.’ [15] Animal handler and outdoorsman Dick Robinson contributed to the cinematography and acted in the film. Robinson, who had evolved his parking lot animal show into a career providing animals for various productions including TV’s Wild Kingdom, Lassie, and The Wild Wild West, [16] was co-owner of the nascent studio’s Springdale, Utah menagerie of 125 animals including the real star of Toklat, Willie the grizzly bear. [17] The film contained footage shot over five years as Willie grew into an adult. Released during the very early days of Sunn when it was still using the Mel Hardman name, it was on this film that Patrick Frawley, a recovered alcoholic, attempted to insert an anti-alcohol message Hardman insisted didn’t belong in the film. Frawley also objected to a song about ecology that Hardman used in the film, calling it ‘communist dogma.’ [18]
Toklat
grossed $3.9 million in its first year of release. It was never released on any
form of home video but did enjoy some TV airings on local stations throughout
the 1980s, and was shown on the Disney Channel in 1990, then completely
disappeared. Until someone produces a film print or uploads a recording, Toklat
is apparently a lost film.
The following year’s Trap on Cougar Mountain featured young Eric Larson, son of actress Vera Miles and writer/director Keith Larsen. 12-year-old Erik was the ultimate 70s free-range kid-roaming the countryside of Virgin, Utah alone on his three-wheeler saving wildlife from traps and interfering with hunters with little regard for his own safety. Also released in late 1972, Brother of the Wind with Dick Robinson now in the lead role, depicted a modern-day mountain man in the Canadian Rockies saving four wolf cubs after their mother dies. Filmed in southern Alberta, Brother notably featured long, long stretches of wildlife shots interspersed with scenes relating the narrative. All of these were low-budget productions shot entirely on location with largely non-union crews and actors, many of which had little prior film experience, and notably filmed on 16mm without location sound, having soundtracks post-produced in their entirety. However,
Sunn’s first release in 1974 wasn’t a wilderness film, but an additional genre
they would become known for.
This is when Charles Sellier along with
several others left ANE and moved from Denver to Salt Lake City
to join Sunn Classic in June 1974. [19] Bringing with him his newfound obsession
with audience concept testing, Sellier immediately went to work, having
computers installed at Sunn (four years before Jimmy Carter would install any
at the White House) and analyzed what moviegoers were buying tickets for Chariots.
When their data showed uneducated adult males were the most interested, they
focused television advertising on programs they felt that met that demographic,
such as The Six Million Dollar Man. Also finding a great deal of public
fascination in a variety of unexplained phenomena, this would heavily influence
a shift in the types of films they would be known for releasing. [20]
But those would have to wait, as Sellier’s
first film project for Sunn would be none other than The Life and Times
of Grizzly Adams. In the summer of 1973, on the heels of the success of
Brother of the Wind, experienced animal handler Dick Robinson had signed
with Sunn to create two Grizzly Adams films, featuring himself in the
title role. Robinson, who was making films for both ANE and Sunn, had worked with Sellier making
the coyote film Birth of a Legend, when Sellier was still at ANE. When a three-hour assembly cut of
Robinson’s footage was screened, Sunn executives seemed not to be pleased with
what had been filmed, resulting in Sellier completely taking over the Grizzly
Adams production, filming an entirely new version featuring an animal handler
that had been ‘discovered’ by Patrick Frawley on a film being shot in Alberta.
When the North Wind Blows, a continuation of Sunn’s ‘wilderness’
formula, broke in mid-November in smaller Pennsylvania and Ohio markets.
For this film, Sunn enlisted Stewart Raffill, who had supervised the wild
animal sequences in Disney’s Lt. Robinson Crusoe, U.S.N., Doctor
Doolittle, and the Ron Ely Tarzan series. Also appearing in North
Wind was an unknown actor and animal trainer that had appeared in a handful
of biker films by the name of Dan Haggerty, who would be enlisted as Sunn’s new
Grizzly Adams.
While Sunn would release
a couple more ‘wilderness’ films; The Adventures of Frontier Fremont in 1975, again with Haggerty, and Guardian of the Wilderness in late 1976, starring Denver Pyle; the remaining majority of their 1970s film lineup would represent a shift to what Variety would call ‘speculation’ films. Taking a cue from the enormous success of Erich von Däniken’s book, Sellier shrewdly managed to retain the rights to adapt each screenplay he
produced into a book. Thus, a tie-in paperback from Bantam books was released
in conjunction with most films Sunn produced or distributed, starting with Grizzly Adams going forward. While these books would carry Sellier’s name as author, and often give the impression that the movie was based on the book, proclaiming ‘now a major motion picture’; they were in fact ghost-written adaptations of screenplays already in production. [21]
Sunn next
picked
up theatrical distribution for 1975’s The Outer Space Connection. Hosted by Rod Serling and written and produced by Alan Landsburg,
who had created In Search of Ancient Astronauts and In Search of Ancient Mysteries for television in the prior two years. Two years later, Landsburg continued exploring mysterious phenomena on television, with the popular syndicated series In Search Of...With Rod Serling passing away before production started, the series was hosted by Leonard Nimoy.
Also in 1975, Sunn finally produced
their own pseudo-documentary on one of the topics ANE had already visited. Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monster featured Peter Graves examining the
alleged sightings, photos, and footprints left by America’s popular cryptid, as
well as others such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti. The Patterson-Gimlin
footage that had debuted in ANE’s Bigfoot: Man or Beast? was used,
over which they were promptly sued by ANE,
alleging film piracy, based on their claim that the footage had been
exclusively licensed to them. [22] The film was quickly retitled The
Mysterious Monsters in the wake of the suit, likely to avoid confusion
with ANE’s film. The lawsuit was settled, but
ironically ANE were themselves being sued by Robert
Gimlin, who had been left out of negotiations when Patterson licensed the
footage to ANE. It didn’t end there; the legal history
of the Patterson-Gimlin film is incredibly complex and went on for another
seven years. Meanwhile, Monsters scared up $11 million of ticket sales.
However, Sunn was again treading on ground already covered by competitor ANE, who had released the admittedly less engaging The Ark of Noah the prior year, but undoubtedly had primed audience interest in the topic. Unlike ANE’s drier version, Sunn’s $360,000 production filmed dramatic recreations of the Biblical account, using their menagerie of animals, as well as some 40-50 actors. [23] Sunn’s Search would find about $26 million in box office revenue. To put that in perspective, this places it ahead of hit films Network, Logan’s Run, and Carrie, all also released that year. [24]
Fast forward some 17
years later and the film’s topic was revisited in the Sellier-produced 1993 CBS
TV special The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark, hosted by
Darren McGavin. During the production of this TV special, Sellier’s production
company found itself the victim of what we would now call a troll. Presented
uncontested in the special were the claims of George Jammal,
who showed what he called "sacred wood from the ark,” the supposed product
of a tragic expedition said to have claimed the life of his friend. Just over
four months later, Jammal was revealed to be an out-of-work Israeli actor from Long Beach who had never been
to Turkey, and the "sacred wood" were actually
pieces
of railroad tracks he had collected near his California home that he baked in
his oven with barbeque and teriyaki sauce.
The story behind the hoax is equally
absurd, and it turned out it was all part of a years-old practical joke that
stemmed from a creation/evolution debate Jammal had heard on KABC radio in
1985. Jammal fabricated the account of his expedition to Turkey’s Mount Ararat
and sent it to the Institute for Creation Research, who had participated in the
debate. In his story, the outrageous Jammal used names he felt were obviously
preposterous such as ‘Mr. Asholian,’ ‘Vladimir Sobitchsky,’ and ‘Allis Buls
Hitian.’ Ironically, Jammal watched 1976’s In Search of Noah’s Ark in
preparing his false account. Years passed, and the ICR had sent Jammal’s story
to Sunn Classic. Coached by Gerald Larue, a USC professor of religion and
archaeology who felt he had been misrepresented on previous Sunn productions,
Jammal was interviewed for 1993’s Incredible Discovery special. [25]
When Larue revealed the hoax, he was
rightly critical of Sunn’s failure to vet evidence presented on their programs.
Even after being revealed, Charles Sellier was incredulous that Sunn had been
hoaxed at all, seemingly not comprehending that Jammal’s original
eight-year-old story had been fabricated. The whole account was thoroughly
investigated in a 1993 issue of Skeptic magazine, which also pointed out
other inaccuracies, omissions, and misrepresentations contained in the 1993
special. [26] This resulted in CBS heavily vetting an
upcoming already-produced special Mysteries of the Ancient World but
scrapping any future projects with Sunn. [27]
Back in 1977, Sunn’s researchers were working on their next project. When concept testing two years earlier had revealed strong interest in political conspiracies, among the film concepts Sunn tested was one that would explore if there had been a conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sunn head researcher David Balsiger put their investigators to work, spending some $200,000 in research assembling their own alternate history surrounding the presidential assassination, based in part on a supposed transcript of the 18 pages said to be missing from the diary of John Wilkes Booth.
The product was The Lincoln Conspiracy, produced for a total of $1.2 million, a monumental budget for Sunn. So sure were they of their audience research, Sunn dropped their typical gradual four-wall distribution in favor of a wider release, demanding upfronts from theaters, and spending a massive $5 million on marketing – including an agreement with 7-11 convenience stores to display the tie-in paperback, as well as prolific television advertising for its October 1977 release. Lincoln was Sunn’s first clear box office falter, earning only $5.6 million, and was quickly sold to TV partner NBC to air on broadcast television only seven months after theatrical release. [28]
Sunn produced several specials for NBC,
such as 1977’s Last of the Mohicans, and their version of
The Time Machine in 1978, both presented under the Classics
Illustrated brand. Greatest Heroes of the Bible was a
limited series NBC aired during National Bible Week in November 1978 as 10
episodes airing across five nights. The series would return in late spring with
seven more one-hour installments. Classic TV fans that seek out the episodes will
be delighted to see Mark Lenard, Frank Gorshin, Robert Culp, Gene Barry, David
Birney, Victoria Principal, Barry Williams, Eve Plumb, Don Most, and William
Daniels all make appearances.
A comment left by a Mike
M. at the bottom of a Diabolique article on Sunn Classic gives us an idea what
it may have been like on this Sunn production. “I worked on a Sunn Classic
production ‘Greatest Heroes of the Bible’ in Utah and Arizona in the late
1970’s. Was an extra in several segments, made $25 a day. I didn’t really know it
at the time, but it was the cheapest production you could imagine and us extras
were put into danger on a regular basis, things that might have gotten a
production shut down now were shrugged off because it was the 70’s and people
needed the money. Half the extras were Navajos and maybe a 1/4 were rural
Mormons. Interesting times!” [29]
Two of their late-70s entries are still remembered by some as nightmare-inducing. 1978’s Beyond and Back was a Sunn Classic look at 'near death experiences,’ then a recently coined term. Called a "death-sploitation flick" by some critics, [30] based partly on evangelist Ralph Wilkerson’s 1977 book, and authoritatively narrated by Sunn regular Brad Crandall, Beyond re-enacted NDE accounts – one of which depicted a suicidal woman’s frightening decent into Hell. The film was incredibly still given a G-rating. The following year’s Beyond Death’s Door was a scripted narrative rated PG, the first Sunn film to receive this rating. Of course, all the NDEs related were consistent with the popular Christian narrative of the afterlife.
Sunn’s two 1979 offerings were their by-now typical mix of the paranormal and the religious. January’s The Bermuda Triangle rehashed Charles Berlitz’s highly specious 1974 book as well as prior film and TV efforts to the tune of $10.8 million. Sunn’s August release was In Search of Historic Jesus. Heavily promoting the authenticity of the religious relic known as the Shroud of Turin, the film recycled scenes produced for Greatest Heroes of the Bible and presented a narrative about Jesus Christ consistent with Mormon teachings. Both the film as well as Sunn’s advertising and distribution methods were absolutely excoriated by Siskel and Ebert in Sneak Previews. Still, the film earned $10.6 million at the box office. They didn’t know it at the time, but this film would effectively mark the end of Sunn Classic Pictures as it was known.
Yes, there were more films; Sunn's Hangar 18, released in June 1980, was perhaps the most mainstream of their non-wilderness films. Also rated PG and released alongside the typical tie-in novelization by Bantam, the film purported to tell the story of a government cover-up regarding a UFO observed by the space shuttle crew that subsequently crash landed in the Arizona desert and was taken to an Air Force Base in Texas and tucked away in Hangar 18. True to form, what was real and what was fiction was intentionally blurred and the trailers gave the impression that the film was based on real events – even though it pre-dated the first manned flight of the space shuttle. The fact that the marketing plays up the film in documentary style is hardly surprising, given the fact that the film was borne out of pre-production research for yet another of their documentaries. When Sunn researchers found insufficient evidence for a Texas Air Force Base hanger housing extra-terrestrial spacecraft, they took the concept and turned it into a screenplay. [31]
Relying on their typical practice of TV ad saturation, they didn’t even seem to release a press kit with artwork for the film, with all newspaper theater listings simply listing the film in plain text; and the one-sheet movie poster was a very lackluster design. Even though Sunn had commissioned accomplished artist Tom Chantrell to do full movie art for the print materials, they only used the single element of three of the actors peering into what is perceived to be the door to the UFO, surrounded by a sea of black and large credits emphasizing the lead actors. Chantrell’s full artwork was seen on the UK quad sheets and years later on DVD covers.
Perhaps Sunn bit off more than they could chew with Hangar 18, or its UFO conspiracy theme didn’t appeal as much to their typical audience. Or it was simply steamrollered by box office competitors The Empire Strikes Back, Airplane, and Urban Cowboy; as well as the near-universal bad reviews. But by now, the studio was in serious decline due to several factors. Yes, there was the financial failure of Hangar 18 – but for years advertising costs had started to eat into their business model, which depended heavily on TV ad saturation. Sunn EVP Clair Farley had complained as early as 1977 that TV advertising rates had gone up 26%. [34] There was also a little-publicized legal battle with Dick Robinson over the Grizzly Adams brand that had dragged on for some six years, which is its own story. [35] And perhaps most importantly, in yet another serious blow to their business model, theaters began realizing they were getting the short end of the stick with Sunn’s four-walling strategy, and many had stopped participating. [36] The same summer Hangar 18 was released, Sunn and an interest in future releases of their film library were acquired by multimedia conglomerate Taft Broadcasting in a $5 million deal. [37]
Taft proceeded to dust off properties from
Sunn’s library. 1981’s Earthbound with Burl Ives and Whiz Kids’
Todd Porter in likely his first role, featured an old man and his grandson hiding a crash-landed extra-terrestrial family with a green monkey from the government. Filmed two
years earlier, Earthbound had been a TV movie pilot delivered to NBC in
the fall of 1979, with the hope of a 13-episode mid-season order. [38] Shelved when rejected by the network, it
was later pulled out of the Sunn catalog and released theatrically to generate
revenue. Surprisingly, Earthbound included a mild profanity, as well as
the name of Jesus Christ used as an expletive, both seemingly inserted in post
to obtain a PG rating for the theatrical release.
The 1981 R-rated horror film The Boogens produced by Sellier under Taft/Sunn, as well as the racy and even then-highly problematic Private Lessons (in which an adult European housemaid seduces a 15-year-old boy, distributed under recently formed subsidiary Jensen Farley Pictures after no mainstream Hollywood studio would touch it) both represented a complete departure from their previous G-rated wholesome studio identity. [40] The fact that during filming of The Boogens, a propane-fueled pyrotechnic device ignited a fire which burned down the building they were filming in perhaps adds additional symbolism here. The Sunn Classic Pictures that once promised “wholesome family entertainment always” was no more. [41]
I’ll conclude this examination of Sunn
Classic with Sellier’s 1981 film The President Must Die. In researching this documentary that purported to expose a
cover-up of the JFK assassination, I found that Sunn performed their usual
audience concept testing and, like The Lincoln Conspiracy, found the subject
matter to be highly rated with their testing participants. When it came to ticket-buyers,
however, the film fell far short of expectations when played in the initial
release markets of Arizona and Virginia in January. The film was then
completely shelved by Taft/Sunn, never to be seen again. Evidence for the existence
of this film seems to only exist on IMDB and in surviving copies of the
incredibly rare tie-in Bantam paperback (released as Conspiracy to Kill a
President.) The fact that there was a competing book released that year sharing
the film’s title and the extremely unfortunate timing of an assassination
attempt on then-President Reagan that March almost certainly killed any ability
to further market the film.
However, discussing this film,
screenwriter Brian Russell was unusually frank regarding Sunn’s research and
writing process in an interview with journalist Patricia Morrisroe: “After
feeding our data into the computer, we went with the conspiracy theory – the
premise that was closest to what the majority believed.” When asked what if
their data had shown the majority of the public believed the official report
that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone and not part of a conspiracy? “We
would have gone with that angle instead. We’re interested in drama, not
politics.” [42]
Yes-Russell admitted Sunn allowed their
audience research to shape the narrative of films they presented to the public
as documentaries. Much the same was later confirmed by James Conway, director
of The Lincoln Conspiracy in a 2018 interview for Diabolique Magazine: “In
my mind we were making a docudrama. I never minded the criticism because we
weren’t trying to make a pure documentary story...There was no authentication
process.” [43]
This harks back to Sunn lead researcher
David Balsiger’s simple response to criticisms of their 1993 Noah’s Ark
TV special: “This is an entertainment show." [44]
[1] Edgerton,
Gary (1982) “Charles E. Sellier, Jr. and Sunn Classic Pictures.” Journal of
Popular Film and Television, 10:3, 106-118
[2] “Growth
Unlimited Focus Is on Self-Development.” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph 01
Aug 1971, Sun · Page 55
[3] “CVD
Studios Begin Filming of Western.” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph 18 Oct
1972, Wed · Page 24
[4] “’G’
Film Gambles on Humor.” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph 11 Nov 1972, Sat ·
Page 57
[5] “CVD
to Produce 12 Films Under $6 Million Deal.” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph 08
Feb 1973, Thu · Page 26
[6] “Utah
Firm Acquires Colorado Company.” Deseret News 02 Apr 1973, Mon · Page 32
[7] “CVD
Signs Film Pact For TV.” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph 23 Jun 1973, Sat ·
Page 84
[8] Edgerton,
Gary (1982) “Charles E. Sellier, Jr. and Sunn Classic Pictures.” Journal of
Popular Film and Television
[9] Wright,
Christopher. “He Produces Films by Computer.” The Tampa Tribune 06 Feb 1974,
Wed · Page 49
[10]
Ibid.
[11] “Lights, Camera, Action-S.L. ‘Firm’ Rolling.” The Salt Lake Tribune 07 Nov 1971, Sun · Page 49
[12] “Internal
Dissension Splits S.L.-Based Movie Firm.” Deseret News 19 Feb 1972, Sat · Page
8
[13] Barth,
Ray. “State-born Author Finds a Plot Against Lincoln.” The Capital Times 04 Oct
1977, Tue · Page 33
[14]
Wasser, Frederick. “Four Walling Exhibition: Regional Resistance to
the Hollywood Film Industry.” Cinema Journal, Winter 1995, Vol. 34, No.
2, p. 57
[15] “Utah’s
‘Toklat’ Premieres Wednesday.” The Salt Lake Tribune 01 Nov 1971, Mon · Page 9
[16] Robinson,
Dick. “Never Kick a Bear In Your Bedroom Slippers.” Osmond, 1980. Chapters 11,
17, 19.
[17] Esplin,
Fred. “Utah Wild Animal Compound Lists Film, TV ‘Stars.’” The Salt Lake Tribune
24 Jan 1971, Sun · Page 32
[18] “Internal
Dissension Splits S.L.-Based Movie Firm.” Deseret News 19 Feb 1972, Sat · Page
8
[19] Robinson,
Dick. “Never Kick a Bear In Your Bedroom Slippers.” Osmond, 1980. P. 312.
[20] Kilday,
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[i] Although IMDB and multiple sources list a 1973 release for Pieces of Eight, I never found any theatrical listing for the film, but it was listed in a trade ad for a television syndication package later sold by Gold Key Entertainment, and I found several 1981 TV airings. News articles about the film’s production also give conflicting information. This cited Tampa Tribune article called it Sellier’s “next picture” to be filmed in the Tampa Bay area with underwater footage to be filmed off the Bahama Islands and put out a call for local talent to work on the film. Admittedly, this is a difficult one to research since the film’s title is a common phrase, and that it shares a title with several books and other films.
[ii] Four-walling
also benefited other studios in this era, including (perhaps ironically) the
infamous Deep Throat, the first well known pornographic film in the U.S.,
which introduced pornography to mainstream audiences. This method of distribution
ended up causing disputes over the copyright to this film which extended into
the 21st century.
